Digital Transformation Community Thought Leader Interview: Sharon Feng, PPG Industries

April 2022

IRI’s Lee Green and Sharon Feng, Director of Science and Technology and Global Analytical Science at PPG discuss PPG’s digitalization efforts, including their Fast Forward initiative, the ways that R&D can benefit from digitalization, the value of legacy data, and creating citizen data scientists.

Dr. Sharon Feng is the Director of Science and Technology and Global Analytical Science at PPG, a leading global manufacturer of high performance coatings. In her current role, she leads the global flagship R&D center in Pittsburgh, PA as well as a network of Analytical Sciences labs across the globe. Recently, she has taken on the responsibility of leading the digital transformation initiatives for Science and Technology organization in an effort to leverage the state-of-art data science approaches such as AI/ML to accelerate innovation and new product development. Since 2009, she has been a member of the board of directors for Koppers Holding LLC, a publicly traded mid cap carbon material company, and chairs the Sustainability Committee on the board. Before joining PPG, Sharon had more than 20 years of experience working in coatings, specialty chemicals and materials industry with diverse roles in R&D, marketing, business development and EHS function for Covestro and Lanxess. She received her Ph.D. in chemistry from MIT.